The Family Fun Fest, a Night of Talent

I hope everyone has had a great summer and enjoyed themselves at the 2012 Family Fun Fest. For those of you who didn’t hear the Music Education Program along with many other Health Programs orchestrated a night of family fun with music. Our Family Fun Fest was held on August 25, 2012 open to parents and children at the Thunderbird Casino in Little Axe. This event showcased the many talented Native Americans we have in our community. We had booths from the health system programs as well as booths from vendors outside of the tribe handing out helpful health information to make this night memorable.

The purpose of this event was to help get the word out about the Music Education services and to let people, young and aged, know about the joy music can bring. The main focus of the Family Fun Fest was the Karaoke Contest in which the contestants sang their hearts out without a monitor to read off of. We had many talented contestants but of course only one winner. We would like to congratulate Delana Deere who sang “The Eagle Song.” She did such an amazing job so if you get a chance to see her, kindly congratulate her. She won the chance to make her own 10 track CD with artwork.

During the contest raffle tickets were sold and a silent auction took place. The give-a-ways consisted of 2-$25 gift certificates from Country Boy Grocery, 2-$10 gift cards from Sonic, $10 voucher from Avon, 4-$25 gift cards from Wal-Mart bought by the AST, 4-$25 gift card to be used at the AST tribal store, AST diner, or AST gift shop, 4-$25 free play good at any Thunderbird Casino, and a $25 gift card from Firelake Grocery. The silent auction was a huge hit raising $357.00 for the Music Education Program. The auction items were a Rogue Guitar, a boys Huffy bike, a girls Huffy bike, 2 George Strait Autographed CD’s, 2 George Strait Autograph Pictures, a gift basket from Avon, a bucket filled with cleaning supplies with a $20 gift card from Lowe’s, and a socket wrench set. This event was our first event like this, and to make it an even better success for next year we are in the stages of planning for our 2013 Family Fun Fest. We are attempting to get a well known music entertainer possibly a line dance contest. We’re open to suggestions.

I would like to thank all of the Health Departments who took time out of their busy schedules to help plan and make this event a success which include, Diabetes & Wellness, REACH, Public Health Nursing and Caregivers, Injury Prevention, Behavioral Health MSPI, our Substance Abuse & Drug Counselor, Glenna Jones, and Patient Benefit Advocates. We also had Indian Child Welfare and our local Avon Representative set up booths. A special thanks goes out to our MC of the night, Randy Edge, Kyle Gibson for helping set up and tear down the equipment, and Buster Bread for being our Sound System Technician. Our Judges were Teri Reed, Belinda Collins, Kyle Gibson, John Kammerzell, and Lynn Melton. Thank you all again for all your hard work we look forward to seeing you all next year at the 2013 Family Fun Fest.

I still offer free music lessons at the Little Axe Health Center and at the tribal complex in Shawnee. Feel free to contact me at 405.701.7994 or Sidna McKane at 405.701.7977, we will be happy to let you know about the music lessons offered. I view every class as a time of enjoying music and learning to play the acoustic guitar, piano, bass guitar, or vocal or song writing. My classes are informal, relaxed, and fun so please give us a call or visit; you might just find the musician inside of you waiting to come out!

Sincerely,
Phil Bradley, Music Education, CHP